16.06.2012 Zurück in Hamburg

Am 16.06. bin ich planmäßig vormittags wieder in Hamburg Fuhlsbüttel gelandet.

Mit diesem Empfangskomitee hatte ich nicht gerechnet:

Vielen Dank liebe Freunde, das war großartig.

Eine überschlägige Kostenaufstellung ergibt Gesamtausgaben von gut 23.000 Euro.

Neben Lebensmitteln sind das im Wesentlichen:

Mietwagen:                5.500 Euro
Kraftstoff:                  2.300 Euro
Übernachtungen:       2.200 Euro

Flugkosten:                2.300 Euro

Aus meiner Sicht habe ich das Geld gut angelegt. Ganz ehrlich habe ich Deutschland nicht wirklich vermisst, wohl aber den Familien- und Freundeskreis.

Es gibt so viele schöne Orte auf der Welt, die alle noch entdeckt werden wollen. Es wird also hoffentlich nicht meine letzte Reise dieser Art sein.

Ich danke allen für ihre großartige Unterstützung, insbesondere diejenigen, die nach den Autos und meiner Wohnung geschaut haben.

Der Blog ist damit bis auf weiteres geschlossen.

Axel Heyne
Kiel, 28.06.2012

Singapore 11. – 15.06.2012 (German/English)

Am ersten Tag habe ich die halbe Stadt zu Fuß abgelatscht. Und dass bei 32 Grad und extrem feuchtschwüler Luft. Nach gut 9 Stunden war ich zurück im Hostel Backpackers SG. Für 26 SGD erhält man ein Bett im 4-Bett-Zimmer, freies W-Lan, Gemeinschaftsduschen und freies Frühstück. Unterster Standard, aber was braucht man mehr.

Nach Australien sind die Lebensmittelpreise hier sehr günstig. Für 5 SGD erhält man eine ordentliche Mahlzeit, zwar nicht im Restaurant aber in einer der vielen kleinen Küchen am Straßenrand.

Der Innenstadtbereich von Singapore zeigt sich mit all seinen Hochhäusern und Parks und anderen beeindruckenden Gebäuden von seiner besten Seite. Alles ist sauber und pickobello; kein Grafitti weit und breit.

Little India hingegen ist schmuddelig, aber mit all seinen kleinen Geschäften und den vielen Menschen sehr interessant.

At the 2. day I visit the island Sentosa. The island is in the south of the business district. Here are some beaches with a good look on the ships on roads. Today are 33 degrees and a jump in the water is not really a refreshment. The water is not clear and not clean. No comparison with the beaches in Westaustralia or New Zealand. On the Sentosa a lot of funparks but no nature. All is fake included the Nature Trials. Between the rocks are signs, that you don’t walk on it, because they are from fibreglass.  

I went by train to the harbour front. This underground train is different to other trains. You don’t get a paper ticket, but a card like a credit card. Only the card has a value from 1 SGD and you have to pay on the card the price. When you finished the ride, you give the card back to machine and you get your Dollar back. More then every 2. person is in the train busy with their smartphones; games, movies, phone calls, facebook, emails – unbelievable.

Strange and wonderful experiences at the 3. day. A new Mazda MX 5 with 160 hp cost in Singapore 180.000 SGD, also around 112.500 Euro. That to the matter tax. I visited the Orchard Road with a lot of very expensive hotels and shopping center. Here is the visitorcenter, where I booked the Night Safari in the Singapore Zoo for the evening, www.nightsafari.com.sg . The Night Safari was the highlight here in Singapore. I sae the “Creatures Of The Night Show”, walked on trial through the park and took the “Night Safari Tram”, which got very close to the animals. Fantastic!!!

At the 4. day I visited Chinatown in Singapore. Here are a lot of small shops and restaurants. I bought another SD-Card and a better accu for the camera and had lunch in this area. At the afternoon I travelled by train to the suburbans, but it looks all very similar.

My last day in Singapore I stayed the most time on the airport. It’s a very new one and I enjoyed, that is all climated. I didn’t know, what I should visit still in Singapore. So I worked on the airport with free WiFi on this blog. My flight back to Germany started after 23:00 p.m., so I had plenty of time.

Westaustralia 01.06. - 06.06.2012 (English)

01.06.2012 Kalbarri – Geraldton

We had to leave this wonderful spot to get back south. We drove to Geraldton, because there are some caravan parks and the best possibilities for shopping. We stayed at the Bel Air Caravan Park, www.belairgardenscaravanpark.com.au .

02.06.2012 Geraldton – Green Head
Geraldton has a very nice and clean beach (no seagrass) and possibilities for picnic. We stayed here until the early afternoon, having breakfast, swimming in the water and hanging around. We got on the road south along the coast and stayed at the caravan park in Green Head. A nice place with some small bays.

03.06.2012 Green Head – Quinns Rock

In the morning we had breakfast at Dynamite Bay in Green Head, just around the corner from the caravan park.

It was a windy day and deserted when we first got there but almost immediately carloads of people arrived for swimming, fishing, kayaking and relaxing. We swam and snorkelled in the bay. Again we got on the road south in the afternoon. Along the coast, just south of Yanchep there were a lot of new subdivisions with new houses – evidence of the tremendous growth being experienced in Perth and environs. We stayed over night at Quinns Rock / Mindarie at a caravan park right on the coast with a wonderful view of the ocean.

04.06.2012 Quinns Rock – Fremantle

After a late breakfast we went for a walk along the coastline to Mindarie marina in the south. In Fremantle, being a public holiday, we found a free carpark at the train/bus interchange. Then we visited the town center and walked round the harbour, ate some very good chocolate cake and looked for T-shirts.

We stayed at the Fremantle Caravan Park, www.fremantlevillage.com.au .

05.06.2012 Fremantle – Perth

The morning staff at the Fremantle caravan park were not very helpful. They informed us that to fill up gas bottle we should leave the gas bottle at the campground and would have to come back late in the afternoon to collect it. So we drove around and after a small odysee found a camping shop providing this service.

Then we headed off to our next and last campground in Western Australia, the Central Caravanpark, which was very close to the airport.

The caravan park at 42 AUD was the most expensive we experienced and the worst.. But as it’s very central to the airport and the car rental company it was perfect for us. On the plus side, before sunset we walked along the Swan River near the caravan park.

06.06.2012 Perth –Melbourne

We got up early in the morning and drove to the airport to drop off our luggage. Then back to the campervan at 8:30 am and to the car rental company. Finally, back to  Perth airport at 9:00 am. The process was perfect and we caught our flight at 10:00 am to Melbourne.

Westaustralia 19.05. - 31.05.2012 (English)

19.05.2012 Melbourne – Perth

From 8:00 am to 2 pm at the Melbourne Airport. Breakfast there. Flight from Melbourne to Perth at 2:00 pm. From Perth Airport to Perth City took a taxi to the accomondation.

That evening out for dinner in Beaufort Street. A lot of young party people are on the streets.

20.05.2012 Perth

Breakfast at Mc Donalds. Visited the City, walked along the Swan River to Kings Park, which has a beautiful Botanic Garden. Bushland Nature Walk in the Park. Nice view over the city, South Perth and the Swan River from the park. Walked to South Perth and back on the Ferry to Perth.  That evening we bought food in a supermarket for dinner and breakfast.

21.05.2012 Perth

After a coffee at Mc Donalds and a short breakfast we took a taxi to the rental company. After more then 1 hour waiting we get the campervan, a 2009 Toyota Hiace.

The brands Maui, Britz and Backpacker are all one company. I booked a car from Backpacker and get a camper from Britz!

Don’t book the camper over this homepage (agent): www.discoverycampervans.com . They are inflexible if you want to change your pickup or bring back times and charge 50 AUD changing-fees for the privilege!

After a stop at the supermarket for a big shop we head north. It wasn’t easy to find the best way, because the roadmaps we had weren’t the best. You can buy better Maps than provided by the car rental.

In the late afternoon we visited Yanchep National Park with a lot of Wallabies and active Koalas. We were alone in the park, no other visitors.

The day ends at the Ledge Point Holiday Park, www.ledgepointholidaypark.com . We prepared dinner in the camp kitchen.

22.05.2012 Ledge Point – Jurian Bay – Dongara

Visited Nambung National Park near Cervantes, part of it is a major visitor attraction, Pinnacles Desert www.naturebase.net.  Entrance costs 11 AUD/car. Pinnacles View Walk, very interesting landscape.

Overnight we stayed at a Dongara caravan park, www.dongaratouristpark.com.au .

23.05.2012 Dongara – Geraldton – Port Gregory

We visited the War Memorial in Geraldton. During World War II, the HMS Sydney from the Australian Marine sank after a fight with the much smaller German Kormoran. Very interesting, Google it.

We stayed in Geraldton for a coffee at The Dome near the beach. Experienced problems with getting access to the internet via phone.

Next stop is Coronation Beach, a nice and cheap campground near the water, but too many flies to stay there so we went further north to Port Gregory.

A very beautiful beach with sand dunes and a long reef  200-300 m out from the beach. We swam and enjoyed the sunset.

At the caravan park we had a lot of mossies and sandflies in the camper. Fortunately we had some insect spray.

24.05.2012 Port Gregory – Kalbarri

Today we travelled a short distance to Kalbarri, the next town north. Interesting coastline on the way, but a lot flies again. We stayed at Murchison Caravan Park. Perfect place, in the middle of Kalbarri, near the beach the shops and the library.

25.05.2012 Kalbarri

We visited Kalbarri National Park, to the north of Kalbarri township. The entrance cost 28 AUD/car. Then you follow a badly corrugated gravel road, 28 km to the Loop Walk and the Nature Window.

Again a lot of flies, but we wore mossie nets over our heads to keep them at bay. The walk took about 3 hours and required a reasonable level of fitness, sometimes you walk in deep sand, sometimes you climb along the Murchison River, and in places, squeezing between rocks.  It was warm enough to go for a swim in the river at about the half-way point.  In the hotter months, the walk would be unbearably hot at any other time than early morning or later in the day.

Afterwards we drove to a lookout and to the Z-Bend. All travel was on gravel roads and by sunset we went back to Kalbarri township to the same campground.

26.05.2012 Kalbarri – Denham

In the morning after a good long breakfast, we had a go at stand-up paddling on the Murchison River opposite the campground.  It cost nothing as it was a promotion by the distributors of Starboard. Good luck! We got on the road to Denham at lunchtime. It’s a long way, first stop at the Overlander Roadhouse to get Petrol. At Denham we stayed at a caravanpark near the beach. The office-staff were very unfriendly!

27.05.2012 Denham – Monkey Mia

We experienced our first free Emu in front of the Denham Visitor Center in the morning.

After getting some information, followed by breakfast on the waterfront, we headed to Shark Bay, Monkey Mia Reserve Resort. On the beach there were some pelicans and in the water near the beach, some dolphins. At sunset a lot of small fish were jumping out of the water.  

28.-29.05.2012 Monkey Mia

Around 8:20 in the morning we went to part of the beach where they have dolphin feeding.

After breakfast we rented a kayak for the day and paddled along the coast until we found a nice deserted beach. We relaxed, swam and read books.

At sunset back with the kayak to the resort. As we neared the resort, some Emus were running along the beach and dolphins were playing in the water. A wonderful day.

30.05.2012 Monkey Mia – Kalbarri

Before heading back to the south, we walked the short Wulyibidi Yaninyina Trail at Monkey Mia late morning. After swimming and a shower we drove back with stops at Little Lagoon, Eagle Bluff and Shell Beach. After visiting the Petrol Station in Billabong we picked up the hitch hiker, Ash. After sunset we arrived at Kalbarri. We did a quick shop at the supermarket and had dinner together at the caravan park.

31.05.2012 Kalbarri

The “nothing to do day”. Swimming, hanging around, library and bookshop for internet, lying on the beach, book reading and a short walk through Kalbarri. That’s it.